How to write a decent fanfiction
by Kanalet
Summary: This is a guide to writing fanfiction. I rated it T because I will be making reference to different types of fanfiction that are, well, inappropriate. I am making this into several different chapters for the sake of organization. I hope it's helpful!
1. Introduction

**How to write a decent fanfiction.**

Welcome to my guide of how to write a decent fanfiction. Keep in mind that these are basic rules for good fanfictions and in no way are you going to become a pro writer just by following them. When someone has writing skill, part of it is from knowing these rules, and the rest is from observation and practice. Lots of people actually learn these from plain observation and experience. Also, before I begin, I apologize if this is unorganized or hard to follow. I hope this helps though.

I've been reading fanfiction for quite sometime now, and I have found one that I consider to be the best ever. I found it quite a while back and still I have yet to find anything that gets close to as good as that one. I think it is a good example and a good source of inspiration. That is what you want to find.  
>You want to find yourself a <em>good<em> fanfiction. I've seen people's reviews on some pretty bad fanfictions saying that it's the best they've seen in the series. Which I find quite sad. To find fanfiction that is truly _**good**_, you need to read quite a lot. If a fanfiction seems a little boring or bad at first, _give them a chance.  
><em>This is VERY important. I've come across amazing fanfiction that I was just about to dump on the first chapter. Fanfictions, just like every other story, take time to develop. The beginning may not be the best, but you never know how much it can improve.  
>After a bunch of reading, you'll find fanfictions that are better and better and soon you'll find what good fanfictions truly are. All of a sudden, you'll see that fanfics you may have thought was "good" a long time ago, really wasn't that good at all.<br>Once you know what good fanfictions are, and once you find an amazing fanfiction, use that for inspiration. Observe how they write. How they deal with certain situations, how they bring a new character into the story, how the characters act, and so on. Practice writing yourself. You have no idea how much you can improve just by reading a great fanfiction.

**I decided to make this a several chapter long guide for the sake of organization. So I will post the other chapters soon enough, I suppose.  
>So what do you think so far? Is it easy to follow? Does it suck? Is it helpful in any way?<br>Let me know!**


	2. Fanfiction Terms

**There are many different fanfiction terms that I think writers should know before writing or publishing a story. Most are pretty self-explanatory, but I'll give you a little bit of a definition for each. So here's a list. (In no particular order) **

**AU - **AU is an abbreviation for Alternate Universe. It means the world is different. It makes major changes to the original storyline and plot. A good example of this would be the common trend of school life. Where the characters are students at a real life school. Where as the original story would probably be about them running around saving the world and battling giant dragons.

**AR - **AR is an abbreviation for Alternate Reality. Basically same world and same people but events are different. Details are changed. This term is often given when referring to what-if stories. What-if stories is stories that have a details that are twisted around and changed. For example, a Legend of Zelda what-if could be "What if Midna never returned to the twilight realm in the end of Twilight Princess?"

**AT **- stands for Alternate Timeline. Refers to any fanfiction that is not in it's original setting. Like a modern fanfiction based off of a series who's original setting was medieval. For example, a Fire Emblem fanfic set in modern timeline with cell phones and cars.

**AH - **means all human. For example, if the series originally included werewolves or demons, it would be changed to all the characters being human.

**Canon - **refers to the "official" source material upon which fan fiction can be based. In short, "canon" in the context of fan fiction is both the accepted "official" material itself, and a concept or detail promoted by the original work and/or in accepted "official" material. (Please note that this particular definition came from Wikipedia. I disclaim.)

**Fanon - **Though it is distinct from canon, fanon is an interrelated concept in that the term encompasses invented (non-canon or not verified as being canon) facts or situations, especially those which are used so frequently in fan fiction that they become seen by many as an extended part of the canon. They become mimetic within the fandom as many writers and fans adopt the same fanon, often within a relatively short time frame. (Again, this is from Wikipedia because I'm too lazy to write the same basic thing that would only be worded slightly different. I disclaim.)

**Crossover/Xover **- means two series are crossed over. A common crossover is Fire Emblem and Legend of Zelda, because they both take place in medieval times with swords and monsters. They basically incorporate characters and concepts from the Fire Emblem series into the Legend of Zelda series. The videogame Kingdom Hearts is actually a crossover of Disney and Square Enix characters and concepts. It's what I like to consider the biggest crossover ever.

**Dark - **means the story has darker and more evil themes. References to death, violence, loss, and overall pain. A common situation is when the main character is more evil and has more of a dark personality than the character had in the original story. A common and good example is dark Twilight Princess fanfictions where Link looses control of his wolf form. He becomes more evil as it takes over.

**A/N - **means Authors Note. Refers to a note the author writes at the beginning or end of a chapter or story. For example "Hello, everyone! I'm back with the next chapter! Sorry it took so long. I had an exam I needed to get done with so I made sure that that was my first priority. But I'm done with that now, so updates should be coming in faster than normal. Thank you for being so patient! I really do appreciate all the amazing reviews you guys have been sending in. It's quite encouraging! Anyway, without further delay, here's chapter 24!"

**OC - **stands for Original Character. This refers to a character that was made up by the Author. Where as the rest of the characters are owned by the makers of whatever series the fanfiction is made after. Lots of people don't like OCs because of how most people deal with them. One thing you don't want to do with an OC is base it off of yourself. Lots of people do this and let me tell you it does not turn out good at all. Oh, and... A lot of them are Mary Sues. So that's the main reason lots of people avoid fanfictions that use them. But keep in mind, if you do it right, it can turn out quite well. So don't judge a fanfiction by the fact that it has OCs. I know of an amazing fanfiction that had SO many OCs. And I never really noticed until I started counting them. The author made them blend in so well. That was truly a work of art. But OCs are definitely something you need to be careful with.

**OOC - **stands for Out of Character. Basically, if the personality of a character is different than the personality that the character had in the original series, that character is OOC. So basically the character will probably say or do a lot of things that wouldn't fit his/her personality in the original series.

**IC -** stands for In Character. Opposite of OOC.

**Collab - **short for collaboration. Collaboration fanfictions are fanfiction made by more than one author. In some collabs, each chapter is written by a different author. In others, the whole story is discussed and written by different authors.

**Oneshot - **refers to a fanfiction that consists of one chapter and is posted in it's completed form. Where as others are a continuous story that are updated over time with several different chapters.

**Drabble - **Oneshots that are usually exactly 100 words long. Although now people often refer to short oneshot stories as drabbles no matter the exact word count.

**Crack fic - **Named after the drug to imply that it can only be the product of a deranged mind, crack fic is identified by its random, nonsensical contents. The plot line might be twisted into a knot, the fic might be a thick parody, or the fic might feature an unlikely or rare pairing ("crack pairing"). Generally these are humor pieces. (I disclaim this... yet again)

**Songfic - **a fanfiction -mostly oneshots-which the author take lyrics to a song and incorporates it into the story. It's used as a way to highlight the theme of the story and the general feeling it has. It's mainly romantic and is sometimes, but not always, a fluff fic.

**Mary Sue/Larry Stu/Gary Stu - **A character that is perfect or adored by the author. Nobody actually likes them, though. A Mary Sue often has a name that is either extremely common, like Jessica or Bob, or a name that's extremely foreign and hard to pronounce, like Camaxtli or Abdulrahman. Often in a story, a Mary Sue OC will get the main character to easily fall in love with him/her. They are basically a very annoying show-off type of character. Some are actually portrayed as the Japanese teenage girl stereotype, "Annoying, but in a cute way". Actually, one of the reasons people don't like OCs are because most of them are Mary Sues. So please try to avoid these.

**Shipping -** Fans often refer to a pairing as a "ship" (short for "relationship") and people who are in favor of two particular characters pairing up are referred to as "shippers." Different fandoms tend to have different ways of referring to their ships. Most common are the name smooshing seen above (Draco + Harry = Drarry), adding a slash or an "x" between the characters' names (Draco/Harry, DracoxHarry), and simply writing their initials together (HPDM, HP/DM, HPxDM). (Again taken from wiki out of lazyness.)

**Name smooshing - **Name smooshing is often used in place of x or / to refer to a relationship pairing between two characters. So if it was a romance between Zelda and Link, instead of writing Zelda/Link or ZeldaxLink it would be referred to as Zelink. You're literally smooshing the two names together. Another example is Sora/Kairi which is often referred to as Kaiso.

**Non-Con - **"Non-consensual": the fic's plot may incorporate rape or other sexual assault. There is also "dub-con", or "dubiously consensual", in which a character isn't being raped, but whether they wanted it to happen is questionable. (Again, I was being lazy and got this from wiki. Disclaim!)

**POV - **means Point of View. Refers to whose perspective the story is taking place in. So if it was Zelda's POV it would be the story written out in Zelda's perspective. Often showing those characters thoughts on the current situation.(Thoughts are usually written in italics) For example, "I furrowed my brow in thought as I considered the letter in front of me. What could he be plotting...? I thought to myself"

**R&R - **means read and review. Said by authors to encourage readings to read and review the story. Also C&C (critique and comment) but R&R is much more common. "R&R please!"

**RPF - **stands for real person fiction. Means it's based off of a real life person. Like musicians, politicians, and other famous people.

**SI - **means Self-Insert. Where the author inserts themselves into the story. Often associated with Mary Sues. Wiki worded it quite nicely, "It is a common mistake to confuse the terms 'Mary Sue' and 'Self-Insert', especially since generally Mary Sues are seen as being the kind of person the author wishes they could be and often are a form of idealized self-insertion."

**PWP -** means Plot? What Plot?. It's basically a story that doesn't really have a plot. Mostly sexual situations or events but nothing more.

**TWT - **Time? what time?. Said to be a pun on PWP. Means the story doesn't take place in any particular timeline.

**Fluff/WAFF - **WAFF means Warm and fluffy feeling. These stories are meant to give a "Warm and fluffy feeling" to the reader. Also referred to as "fluff" or "schmoop". Although fluff refers to more of a short story or part of story where you're supposed to get this feeling.

**Lemon/Lime - **Stories that involve sex in general. Also referred to as citrus. Lemon tends to be more detailed and explicit than lime. Lemon is more PWP. I've actually heard of it referred to as "written porn". It actually comes from a Japanese slang term meaning "sexy" that is from an early porn cartoon series called Cream Lemon.

**Yaoi/Yuri - **means gay pairings. Yaoi is male/male where as yuri is female/female. Yaoi is also referred to as Shonen-ai (boy love) and yuri as Shojo-ai (girl love). The word Shonen in Japanese literally means younger or early years where as the word Shojo literally means virgin or maiden.

**Keep in mind that this is not a complete list of all the terms. They're the most common ones. This actually took quite a while to list off so I hope this helps. I disclaim some of the definitions though. I got some from Wikipedia because I either wasn't too good at explaining that particular one, or I was just too lazy to think up a good way of how to explain it. :P Anyway, R&R please! ^-^ **


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